REVIEW: ‘New Group’ Gets Physical With The Horrors of Conformity

New Group, directed by Yûta Shimotsu, brings J-horror weirdness that focuses on the horrifying nature of conformity and the aggressive attack on autonomy.  Set in Japan, the film offers a look at what conformity looks like for people who live there. The body horror we witness throughout New Group‘s runtime is certainly not what we typically see. 

New Group follow Ai (Anna Yamada), an incredibly shy high school student, whose world is turned upside down when those around her begin to act strangely and cult-like. When Ai becomes friends with a new student, Yu (Yuzu Aoki), they both band together to rebel against the demand for conformity. Thus, leading them to become outsiders entirely. 

New Group doesn’t waste time showing how exhausting and restrictive it is to conform to societal pressures and expectations. Ai is introduced as a shy person who goes along with what others want because it’s what’s expected of her. Underneath her shy exterior and desire to fit in is someone who wants to speak up and be an individual person. Therefore, when Yu enters her classroom, they’re immediately drawn to one another like moths to a flame. 

New Group dives right into the horrors of social pressure and conformity.

Prior to many of the students and other civilians succumbing to the cult behavior, Ai witnesses numerous instances of bullying that some of the girls in her class are doing. Despite her clear dislike of the bullying and desire to help her classmate, she says and does nothing. The scenes aren’t meant to be a condemnation of Ai’s character; instead, they’re meant to show how people often don’t go against the grain out of fear of rejection, harm, or further ostracization. 

While New Group is meant to be a satirical and darkly comedic look into how conformity manifests within Japanese culture, it utilizes body horror in mostly effective ways and shows how hive mentality looks in the digital age. As soon as people start to fall prey to what’s going on, that’s when the bullying and aggressive hive mind behavior goes into overdrive. People get killed, recorded for social media during distress, and berated over their individualism. 

Yûta Shimotsu presents us with visuals that are alarming and very bizarre. This is shown through the human pyramids, people acting erratically in the streets, or characters being nonchalant or amused by the behavior around them. The absurdity and surreal feeling of New Group come across well through these visuals, as well as the commitment of the lead performance. 

The visuals hammer the point home about the physical breakdown of society to conform.

Anna Yamada’s performance makes her feel like a real person, especially as she comes across as very natural and grounded in the character. The internal struggles and pain Ai faces aren’t what folks might expect when they turn on New Group. The reveal of what happened in Ai’s past doesn’t come until much later. It works in the film’s favor because there’s so much absurdity happening, and a traumatic event would’ve felt oddly placed earlier on. 

Meanwhile, Yu’s life isn’t really explored, and we know so little about him. This makes his character journey a bit iffy, especially since he’s the deuteragonist and should feel more fleshed out than he does throughout the film. He’s still a key part of Ai’s journey in New Group, even when he feels like a character that’s there to make Ai feel less alone. 

Despite how New Group is very much a showcase for Yamada, Yuzu Aoki and Yamada’s scenes together contribute to the emotional core. Yamada and Aoki’s chemistry helps viewers to further root for Ai and Yu to survive their deeply unnerving circumstances. Even when those circumstances reach a level of absurdity that doesn’t always land as well as it should. 

Some characters are hard to nail down, and some overly emotional moments take the viewer out.

Aside from the performances, the choreography and the practical effects that are utilized in New Group are impressive. The film does use CGI, but even if those moments become noticeable, your eyes will mostly be drawn to the athletic sequences. Nippon Sports University students helped execute much of the acrobatics on display, which makes some of the body horror all the more startling because the film doesn’t rely solely on CGI. 

The film is extraordinarily ambitious in its premise, its climax, and its body horror. That ambition makes for a unique approach to the themes, though some aspects of New Group could’ve been explained better or approached differently. Such as the reasoning behind the widespread cult-like behavior, Yu as a character, and why a particular character is the one helping orchestrate this whole ordeal. Not to mention the film needed to bring more scares to the table. 

New Group brings some bizarre visuals, an engaging performance from Yamada, and themes that are consistently relevant. While there’s an overly sappy scene in the climax and little explanation for character motivations or who people are beyond the plot, it’s still a film to cross off your list to see if it makes your J-horror must-watches. 

New Group premieres on Shudder on November 6, 2026.